Day 5 (Thursday, 31st December 2010)
Related posts: Hong Kong Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6
Today the plan was to visit the Tian Tan Buddha statue at Lantau Island.
We had breakfast at Cafe O in Wan Chai. The cafe is located on Jaffe Road, quite near to Wan Chai MTR station. The food and coffee was really good. Quite impressive for a chain coffee shop.
After breakfast, we took the MTR from Wan Chai to Tung Chung Station. It was quite a distance given that Tung Chung is located on a different island entirely (refer to diagram above). The whole journey from Wan Chai to Tung Chung took us around 1 hour 30 minutes (including wait time).
As we exit Tung Chung Station, we can see the Citygate Outlets. It’s massive! We didn’t have time to visit the shopping outlet so we just quickly moved along.
We headed to the Ngong Ping 360 ticket area. There were 2 types of Cable Car tickets available:
- Standard Cabin HKD165 (~USD20 or RM70)
- Crystal Cabin HKD255 (~USD30 or RM115)
Initially I wanted to get the Crystal Cabin as it has a glass bottom, but then Aliaa wasn’t very comfortable with that. We took the Standard Cabin.
After that, there was a queue to get to the cable car. It took us around 10-15 minutes before we got into the cable car. I can’t imagine the queue if it’s peak summer holidays!
The cable car trip took us from Tung Chung Bay to a interim station at Airport Island and then onwards to North Lantau Island, where the Ngong Ping Village is located. The views during the 25 minute trip was spectacular. We could see the massive Tian Tan Buddha statue from far during our cable car trip (photo above, bottom right).
The Ngong Ping Village is a cultural village that is designed to reflect the cultural and spiritual elements of the Ngong Ping area. We explored the many shops and attractions as we move towards the Tian Tan Buddha Statue.
To get to the buddha statue, we had to climb 268 steps. With the cool Hong Kong winter breeze, it was quite a pleasant hike up.
Tian Tan Buddha Statue was completed in 1993. It is a bronze statue of Sakyamuni Buddha, symbolising the harmonious relationship between man and nature, people and faith.
On our way back from Lantau Island, we had an MRT transfer at IFC mall. Since it’s just a few hours to go before the new year, we thought of spending some time around the mall. Turns out there was a movie playing at the cinema around 9:30PM and ended around 11:30PM.
After the movie, we followed the crowed out from IFC Mall towards the new year fireworks viewing area by the sea. We managed to get a good viewing location.
At midnight, there were fireworks display at the IFC Tower. A perfect end to our Hong Kong trip as tomorrow is our flight back to Malaysia.
Related posts: Hong Kong Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6
Imran Jaafar 